When I was growing up, we had discovery channel. That sparked my intrinsic curiousity. My daughter has that intrinsic motivation as well, but only for k-pop now. She likes youtube videos and she likes when I tell her about science stuff. Maybe I can combine that by recommending her some good youtube channels.
In addition to the others mentioned.
Kyle Hill
Steve Mould
Physics Girl
The Action Lab
Anton Petrov
Scott Manley
Veritasium
Minute Earth
Minute Physics
VSauce
SciShow
Hank Green
Cleo Abram
Also Nile Red and 3brown1blue.
for a more adult audience - Technology Connections. I say adult because I don’t think Alec would hold the attention of a teenager.
NileRed is more adult than T-C based on the type of stuff he messes with being super dangerous sometimes, though. Like, I wouldn’t want a kid messing around with things like manganese heptoxide or various strong acids or whatever that are super dangerous on their own with adults messing with them, let alone kids.
Hannah Fry is great too. Becky Smethurst as well.
I approve of your list but Anton Petrov is a bit much for a 12 year old, I think. Kyle Hill gets a bit dark for a 12 year old sometimes.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to just start off on the right foot with Carl Sagan and Cosmos.
I love Hannah Fry. She’s got so much joy out of a topic I don’t even begin to understand. She HAS to be a good person.
I came here to say Hannah Fry, too.
She’s been doing a lot of those YouTube shorts or reels or whatever they’re called, so that’s probably a good way in for the younger generation.
Then come the documentaries and books.
Ha, yeah. That’s true about some of those channels. Kinda forgot about the age aspect. Like a lot of Simone’s videos have a bit of language, though she is awesome. I see her as far more as a maker than a science communicator. Not entirely sure why she was suggested a couple of times.
So do most 12-year-olds
God I can’t stand Veritasium. Even the name is so fucking pretentious. Dude is in deep love with himself, I can’t watch it. There’s just something about narcissists, I get an allergic reaction listening to them.
I can see that. I, like you, appreciate the content, but I have found myself watching fewer of his videos. I guess that’s also because he seems to be farming out his content production now. I like the self-produced stuff more than larger-scale productions.
Apparently the channel is owned by private equity now
deleted by creator
I’m shocked I’m not alone, I was prepared to endure the downvote enema, good to know I’m not way off in my judgment at least.
Good news than, he recently made a video about stepping back a little and letting his colleages do more videos.
Just call him Dirk instead, he makes good videos.
Well, his name is Derek.
Yes yes I know, I like the content. I just can’t stand him as a person. That’s on me. I was brought up by narcissists so I have this spider sense about it and I get a visceral reaction.
Very Michigan-centeric, but Alexis Dahl is wonderful, meshing history and science.
Some of those I wouldn’t exactly trust as they’re going to be mostly pushing agendas from the private equity firms that own them, eg. like Veritasium.
I have noticed that his videos over the last couple of years have bumped production quality but felt flat. I honestly only really enjoy his early stuff. How hipster-esque lame is that?
I have blocked a few that I don’t even remember the names of because sponsorships start polluting the content.
I try to take the content for what it’s worth and consider why they are producing the content/message. Starts sounding (externally) commercial, I generally stop watching. Some of these I haven’t watched recently, so I hope they are keeping it real for the most part. I partially blame the platform as well because it doesn’t pay to make the content like it used to. YouTube is pretty crap now for content creators in this genre
I’d recommend NileRed and NileBlue, if only some of his vids didn’t involve things that would be seriously harmful for kids to mess with and that clearly are meant for adults learning chemistry to mess with, eg. like boiling or distilling sulfuric acid to purify it, which of course if hot sulfuric acid gets out of control, you got a massive disaster and easily severe skin burns, for example.
Otherwise, there should be plenty of science communicators which aren’t sellouts that are also age-appropriate for kids to be following along with.
Hell yeah. His videos are great. Forgot to mention him. My wife actually got interested in the cinnamon candy episode.
I still must warn that the guy messes with things that are definitely age-inappropriate for kids, though, see the aforementioned sulfuric acid.